"Mob princess" to read from her memoir at Staten Island Barnes & Noble

Piotr Sikora for VH1Karen Gravano, daughter of Salvatore "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, will read from her book, "Mob Daughter," a week from Wednesday at Barnes & Noble, New Springville.

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Karen Gravano, the reality TV star whose fame is tied to her mass-murdering mobster father, will read from her recently released memoir at the Barnes & Noble store in New Springville next week.

Ms. Gravano, a curvaceous Arizona makeup-artist-cum-reality-TV star, landed a multimillion-dollar deal for her ghost-written "Mob Daughter," which takes readers through her memories of a childhood "in the Mafia enclave of Staten Island as the daughter of one of the Mob's most feared executioners," according to publisher St. Martin's Press.

The free reading will be Feb. 29 at 7 p.m. at the bookstore located at 2245 Richmond Ave.

Followers of the VH1 reality TV show, "Mob Wives" may already feel as if they know the Brooklyn born and Grasmere-reared Ms. Gravano.

Her sometimes cringe-worthy exploits are featured in the hit series, which follows a group of women whose loved ones are in prison for mob-related crimes. As the camera tracks their every movement, laid bare are their lives of spa days, dinner dates, fights with girlfriends, and the occasional, emotional musing on choices they've made along the way.

Ms. Gravano's book, told as if by a wide-eyed young narrator, shares her memories of struggling to figure out who her dad was at first, her confusion over the handshake rituals at his Brooklyn social club and the pressure her family felt from others in "the business" to move to a tony new manse on "the hill" -- Todt Hill.

"I was nine years old when I began to suspect that my father was a
gangster," Ms. Gravano recalls in "Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy (Bull)
Gravano, and Me!."

"It was Sunday and Dad had us all packed into the car for an afternoon of house hunting. He loved driving around different neighborhoods, pointing out houses he liked and sharing his renovation ideas. On this particular Sunday, we were cruising around Todt Hill, an upscale community on the southern end of Staten Island, filled with homes owned by doctors, lawyers, and "businessmen.""

Her father, Sammy the Bull Gravano, was eventually convicted for his role as one of the most prolific mob henchmen in memory.

Ms. Gravano's book "Mob Daughter: The Mafia, Sammy (Bull) Gravano, and Me!" inspired rage among the families of her father's 19 murder victims after its release last week.

After the publication of her father's book "Underboss," nine of the families of his victims went to court and received $420,000 from the proceeds based on a law that prohibits criminals from profiting from their misdeeds.

"My brother was killed once in real life; my brother was killed in Sammy's book. My brother was killed in her book. Enough is enough," said Rosanne Massa, of Bensonhurt, about her brother, Michael Debatt -- a good kid, she said who went to Catholic High School, and played football on scholarship and then sadly got wrapped up in that world and murdered by Gravano in 1987. "The 'Son of Sam' Law should be amended so no family member of that criminal should be able to profit."

Despite the bitter history, Ms. Massa said she does watch "Mob Wives" every week.

"She's trying to distance herself so much from that life, but she just keeps talking about it," she said.